Batuu, and then not- Wednesday

[thatwaslucky]

The good news was that the Falcon was up and running before they got word that the First Order had landed on Batuu and were looking for members of the Resistance.

There'd been a scramble. They actually did have recruits onplanet that they suddenly had to secretly give direction to in order to get them safely to the base on Pacara, and it'd been decided that Rey should be the one to record that message. She'd argued that for about thirty seconds before getting over herself and doing it. (She hadn't even known there was a base on Pacara. Where was Pacara?) And while Rey really didn't want to leave anyone behind- planets helping the Resistance didn't get off easy- the moment she sensed Kylo Ren there, she knew she was more of a liability than anything.

It was the first time they'd been in the same general space in over a year, and there were all sorts of feelings to be had over that, but she'd severed that connection as soon as it had registered and hoped that was enough.

The Falcon took off and left the planet only getting shot at a few times and without too much trouble otherwise, making a couple jumps just to throw the First Order off their trail if they'd been followed. Once they seemed to be clear, Chewie left the cockpit to join BB-8 check on some things.

"Well," Rey said with a sigh, "hopefully that was a positive trip until that last part."


[For the guy!]

Comments

[long_memory]

"It was," Silver replied. He was used to best laid plans turning into a complete shitshow and, admittedly, this could have ended worse. Still, he didn't like seeing first hand what kind of danger Rey faced when she left the island.

"Are you alright?"

[thatwaslucky]

"Yeah." Welcome to Rey's 'I'm fine' smile, which she never meant and was never convincing. "Worried. Are you all right?"

[long_memory]

"Worried," he said. Yeah he wasn't buying that smile at all. "I knew that there was danger involved in all this, but it's different seeing it."

[thatwaslucky]

"I wish I could say this doesn't happen often," Rey admitted, getting up out of the pilot's chair to sit in the one closer to him. "And we're fine. I'm not sure what happens down there."

People got a lightsaber through the top of their transport, obviously.

[long_memory]

"Probably nothing good." At least that is the way things would have gone where he was from. "Are you sure you're okay? You seem...off."

[thatwaslucky]

She almost automatically said she was okay, but instead she paused.

"I felt someone there that I haven't seen in a long time. It's a lot," she admitted.

[long_memory]

"I'm assuming it's a bad someone?" He doubted that such a reaction would come from someone she was happy to see.

[thatwaslucky]

"The Supreme Leader of the First Order," Rey said, and she considered leaving it there.

But that wasn't just why it was upsetting, and this was a particular bit of baggage he actually needed to know. "We have a kind of complicated relationship."

[long_memory]

Well. He wasn't expecting that answer. He thought he was doing a good job keeping his emotions off his face but, well, he was speaking to a Jedi.

"Complicated beyond you being on opposite sides of a war?"

[thatwaslucky]

It felt weird to have to explain this, but Rey was also realizing that aside from when she'd first gotten to Fandom, she hadn't really had to tell anyone about this. Even then it was part of the story of everything she'd been through.

"We have a sort of... mental bond," she said, frowning. "We were linked through the Force without our knowledge and it stuck."

[long_memory]

Silver couldn't even pretend to understand what that was like. The closest he had come to was what he had with Flint, but he had voluntarily learned what that man's mind was like. And while he was violent and capable of great cruelty, he certainly wasn't the Supreme Leader of anything.

"So you can sense each other," he said. "Do you know what he's thinking?"

[thatwaslucky]

"No, but yes?" Rey said slowly. "It's more like I've seen inside his head. And we've shared visions."

It wasn't till now that she was realizing just how weird this all really was and she hoped he still wanted to date her.

[long_memory]

It was all very weird but everything he heard about the whole Jedi thing was weird to him. Luckily he had a talent for rolling with whatever strange situation presented itself to him.

"And someone did this to both of you," Silver said. "Do you know for what purpose?"

[thatwaslucky]

"The previous Supreme Leader did it," she said. "I think to get to my teacher at the time? To test Kylo Ren? Nothing about any of it was okay."

[long_memory]

"No, none of that is okay," he agreed. "I wish there was more I could do other than say that I'm sorry."

[thatwaslucky]

"Thanks," she said, with the tiniest smile. "It's been an ongoing thing, but not all the time. He has tried to get in touch with me once or twice, I think."

[long_memory]

"For what purpose?" he asked. "Just to mess with you?"

[thatwaslucky]

"Maybe. Or just to talk." She didn't think that was outside the realm of possibility. "Or maybe he didn't mean to do it at all. I always cut him off before bothering to find out."

[long_memory]

"Good," he said. "I don't imagine any good would come of it."

[thatwaslucky]

"Probably not," Rey agreed.

Mostly.

"Sometimes I wonder if he's not actually trying to ask for legitimate help from me and I should hear him out, and then he blasts the city we were just in from the sky. So I don't listen."

[long_memory]

"Do you really think there's coming back from killing that many people?" Asking for a friend.

[thatwaslucky]

"I do." She trained under someone who had. "But I think it can be done, and I would have helped. But that's not what he wanted."

[long_memory]

Silver reached out to take Rey's hand. "You can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped."

[thatwaslucky]

"I know," she said, squeezing his hand in return. "I still wish he did. And then I'm mad that he doesn't. That last part gets more true the longer this goes on."

[long_memory]

"I'm not exactly upset about that." There was a slight tinge of jealousy there, but he also felt like Rey could benefit for being angrier at the guy. "Thank you. For telling me."